A group of about 30 criminals attacked a bank branch of Caixa Econômica Federal on Wednesday night (22) in Itajubá (MG), in the south of Minas Gerais.
In a statement, Itajubá City Hall reported that one person was injured in the action and was referred for care at the city hospital. “The City Hall is giving all the necessary support to help our security forces at this time”.
According to information from the State Military Police, the case took place around 11:45 pm. The suspects were heavily armed and fled in five vehicles towards Campos do Jordão, in the interior of São Paulo, according to the corporation.
There is still no information about stolen values. The criminals also fired shots at the police headquarters in the city, but no soldier was injured.
On social media, residents of Itajubá shared videos with gunmen and intense noise of gunfire.
The Belo Horizonte Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) will assist in the incident.
new cangaço
This Wednesday’s action is part of the practice of the so-called “new cangaço” in Brazil. These are crimes committed during the night or dawn, in which a group surrounds a city, usually in the interior of the states, and steals large amounts of money.
According to Public Security specialist and professor at Faculdade Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Rafael Alcadipani, the term refers to “actions in which there is an attempt to dominate an entire city so that criminals try to extract large volumes from bank branches”.
Popularization of the term
Still in the 1990s, inland cities in states in the North and Northeast began to suffer attacks that fit into the tactics of the new cangaço. In the Southeast, similar actions emerged a few years ago.
Between 2020 and 2021, four cities in São Paulo were similarly attacked: Botucatu, Araraquara, Mococa, and Araçatuba. In 2022, the city of Guarapuava, in the interior of Paraná, was also the target of this type of criminal operation.
Criminal analyst and member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, Guaracy Mingardi, explains that robberies are usually very well planned, in addition to having powerful weapons that are often superior to those used by police forces in medium and small cities.
The bands often use machine guns, rifles, explosives and armored vehicles. Armed with these weapons, they prevent a reaction from the police and focus, mainly, on robbing bank branches or couriers.
Historical context
The cangaceiros movement emerged in the northeastern hinterland at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Between the 1920s and 1930s, the leader of the most famous band of cangaço in the popular imagination acted: Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, the “Lampião”.
The cangaceiros, known for their leather clothes and weapons strapped to their bodies, looted cities and challenged authorities, using extreme violence, including kidnapping and rape.
According to specialists, the movement is related to the social context, of extreme poverty, and to the agrarian structure of that time. This is one of the reasons why cangaceiros are often described as “social bandits”, although this description is currently questioned.
In current practices, “what is unique is the strategy of attacking small towns and attacking the police to commit robberies”, explains Mingardi. On the other hand, recent actions do not carry social objectives, which were previously attributed to the cangaço acts, compares the specialist.
Source: CNN Brasil
